8/31/11 - The Last Day of Freedom!!!!!

Last lunch 8/31/11

Its hard to believe that today is my last day of eating junk food. I went out in style today, by having 90% of my meals today from my works vending machine. I am going to miss having the convenience being able to go get food when my stomach starts to growl. But I don't think I will miss it much, as I am really looking forward to starting this journey again, and get my life back on track.

 Small Goals = Large Rewards
I set myself a goal, to lose 40 pounds by Christmas so I can buy myself my RC car or REI tent that I have been wanting. Second Goal is to lose a total of 60 pounds by April fools day, so I can go and purchase my Kayak I have been wanting. Third Goal and its happening no matter what, if I lose the weight or not, but still it will be a reward in itself if I lose my goal of losing 80 pounds by June 1st. DDay 2012!!!!

Lots of Prep Work

Chicken cooking on the grill

I have been doing lots and lots of prep work for this new journey, its one thing I have learned since starting this the first time around, is I hate cooking every night, and buying in bulk saves $$$. So I have been cooking up all the meat in my freezer from this past year and prepping them into smaller 2-4 meal servings and then freezing them for the coming months. I have also been raiding the farmers markets and buying in bulk from them is saving me a ton of money this winter. It does take time to clean and blanch them for freezing, but I am already seeing the cost savings. I have already been able to cut my food budget in half (~$200 bucks) just by doing this prep work. I almost have a stocked freezer for the winter months, its looking like the only veggies I will be buying will be my salads (x2-3 a week)

The score - (5) bags stuffed full of veggies for only $25 bucks!!!

My sister had a huge score for me. I asked her to stop by the local Sunday market, since I already had plans that day. She walked away with 5 bags stuffed with veggies all for $25 bucks, it would have been well over double that at Costco alone. I still am going thru and blanching the veggies for freezing. 2 out of 5 bags are done.

Only 2 out of 3 bags blanched and frozen

Looking forward
Its hard to believe that I am looking forward to starting this journey again. I was ready last week to start it, but I gave myself time to have a few more days of junk food before giving it all up. I had to get in some last minute subway stops, and have my last cream cheese cookie from there, which I have, it will for sure be missed.  But I am hoping that in the future I won't miss them, or crave them. I have already given up a lot and I really don't miss them as much as I thought I would. Tomorrow will be 2 years since giving up pop/soda, pretty much anything with caffeine (only slip up was at dday 2011 with Gatorade) and it has been over 5 months since the last time I had any McDonald/burger king/jack in the box. And I don't miss those cravings anymore.

The only thing I will be missing is Divine.

"If you want a different result than the norm, you will have to do things differently than everyone else!" - unknown